a lt e r n at i v e +
local + independent
// B2
thejasperlocal.com
// B3
// B5
saturday, june 15, 2019 // issue 147
Ridge rider// Jasper’s Tim Johnson descends an unnamed, 2,900 metre peak in the west Rockies near Valemount, B.C. // Ruari Macfarlane
Bench trails open earlier than expected Jasper National Park is welcoming outdoor enthusiasts back to parts of the Pyramid Bench.
pine beetle-affected forest to provide additional protection to the Jasper townsite in the event of a wildfire. The spring was spent rehabilitating access roads and trails.
The area has been reopened after a 500 hectare tree harvest project, unprecedented in a Canadian mountain national park, wrapped up much earlier than anticipated.
No longer. The Bench is back.
Forestry crews spent the winter removing trees in mountain
Parks Canada asks users to respect existing closures.
“The remaining trails will be open soon. Stay tuned,” a press release said.
///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
page A2 // the jasper local // issue 147 // june 15, 2019
editorial //
Local Vocal If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound? Short answer: Who knows (philosophy was never my strong suit)? However, if you’re talking about a tree near one of the backcountry campsites on Maligne Lake this summer, there’s a good chance that no one is in fact going to be there. How is it that in Jasper National Park, where hotels and campgrounds are booked solid from May to October, in-demand backcountry campsites can be dead empty in peak season? Last summer, on August 15, while town was filled to capacity and the Maligne Lake Road was bumper-to-bumper with RVs, I paddled out to Hidden Cove, Parks Canada’s recent addition to the backcountry experience on the largest natural lake in the Canadian Rockies. Amazingly, I had the place all to myself. I wasn’t complaining, of course. It was absolutely magical. But it was weird. Where was everyone? Why weren’t there any other campers enjoying the serenity? I knew from checking online that the site was booked solid. But no one showed up. It was just me, a couple of talkative loons and an osprey coming home with that evening’s fish dinner. Last summer, you’ll remember, was terrifically hazy as wildfires in B.C. raged and sent their smoky detritus over much of Western Canada. This certainly could have been a factor for campers deciding to stay home, but what puzzled me was why Parks Canada’s online booking system still showed the sites as occupied. When I got home and mentioned this to other locals, I was greeted with knowing looks. This is a deficiency of the online reservation system, it was explained. The same thing had been happening ever since backcountry reservations first went online. People book their site when the reservation system opens in January, but if their camping plans fall through—either because of lousy weather, smoke, or a hundred other reasons that might come up when one plans a camping trip eight months in advance—those same folks don’t bother cancelling their site. It means that people who would love to spend the night in some of Canada’s most iconic mountain landscapes don’t get the opportunity. Meanwhile those sites sit empty. What a shame. And if it’s happening at Hidden Cove, one of the most accessible, beautiful and unique campsites in the mountain national parks, then surely it’s happening at less-popular, less-approachable places. Are fully-booked campgrounds sitting empty in the Fryatt and Tonquin Valleys, too? I’m guessing they are. What’s the solution here? Should Parks Canada be creating more of a disincentive for people to noshow? As it stands, there is no penalty, other than losing your original payment. If you’re opting out
more than three days in advance of your booking, the cancelation fee is $13.50, but you still get a refund . If you cancel with less notice than that, you’re charged for your first night. Evidently, the going rate of $9.80 per site isn’t enough for people to let the system know they won’t be coming. Busy restaurants often charge a no-show fee, same with massage therapists. Heck, an Uber driver dinged me five bucks at the airport last month because I couldn’t get my baggage fast enough and missed the pickup. Maybe Parks Canada should start looking at similar retributions? Either that, or make more of an incentive to cancel properly. Give the full refund, minus a (smaller) cancellation fee. Sure, the system costs money to maintain, but if Parks really cared about revenue, you’d think they’d
have some kind of plan in place for the Whistlers Campground renovations! I digress. The truth is, the solution doesn’t just lie with the facility managers, it also has to be shouldered by the users. Campers need to take a little more responsibility for the commodity they are reserving and realize that if they’re not using the sites they booked, they have an obligation to turn them over to other park users. Certainly, many of us have an idea how special backcountry camping in Jasper National Park can be. However, the reservation system still leaves much to be desired. While Parks Canada works out the bugs, let’s all do our part so that these magical places can be experienced by those who would like the opportunity. bob covey // bob@thejasperlocal.com
The Jasper Local //
Jasper’s independent alternative newspaper 780.852.9474 • thejasperlocal.com • po box 2046, jasper ab, t0e 1e0
Published on the 1st and 15th of each month Editor / Publisher
Bob Covey.................................................................................... bob@thejasperlocal.com Art Director
Nicole covey......................................................................... nicole@thejasperlocal.com Advertising + sales
Email us today...........................................................................ads@thejasperlocal.com cartoonist
Deke.................................................................................................deke@thejasperlocal.com
facebook.com/thejasperlocal
@thejasperlocal
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
// local safety
saturday, june 15, 2019 // issue 147 // the jasper local// page A3
Tighten up your swift water skills Swift water season is in full swing in Jasper and that means two things: raft
guides’ Chaco tans are setting up nicely and the number of accidents by recreational boaters (and hikers) is due to increase. To help mitigate potential misfortune and to start a conversation on swift water safety, The Jasper Local tracked down Joe Storms, a local public safety official who recently travelled overseas with Rescue Canada to teach swift water rescue techniques to fire departments and emergency responders in the People’s Republic of China. The Jasper Local: How is it that most people find themselves in trouble on moving water? Joe Storms: Generally speaking, there are two ways: by overestimating their abilities and by underestimating the environment.
JL: Canoeists are obviously running a risk of dumping when they get on moving water. How should they mitigate the possibility of that event? JS: As far as river tripping, you really want to research the Jasper’s Joe Storms plays route. Know where the victim during a swift you’re putting in and water rescue course he getting out, know what taught in China. Rivers are hazards exist before swollen in Jasper, be white you go and make water wise. // supplied sure those things are a river and if you are, accept compatible with your abilities. In our rivers, the most that you’re going to get wet. ominous hazards are strainers Have an extra pair of shoes and socks if you don’t have or log jams; wood debris causes the most fatalities. You time to dry things out. Never want to make sure everything go barefoot—you have poor stability and could easily hurt is fastened, secure and snug—tied tight so your body yourself on a sharp rock. isn’t going to get tangled if JL: What other river situation you flip. And anytime you’re do you consider underdealing with rope you should appreciated in terms of the have some sort of cutting danger it presents? device on your person. JS: It’s very common in JL: What are some situations where people find themselves in the water when they aren’t even paddling, and therefore not wearing a life jacket?
JS: When we look at a lot of the accidents in Jasper, people are usually making poor choices. Maybe they’re JS: Most of our rivers are jumping over the fence at glacially fed; they’re usually Athabasca Falls, and they hovering around 4 degrees have poor foot wear, or there’s Celsius and spending any a wet, down-sloping rock. length of time in the water Or maybe they’re just being severely decreases your complacent. Other times dexterity. Your ability to it can be a bank collapse. manipulate your hands and feet can be reduced in a matter Particularly on the Maligne of minutes, and if you’re hung River, there are exposed roots where the water has eroded up on a rock or a sweeper, it’s the bank. People can also going to be that much harder to free yourself. Furthermore, get into trouble while hiking water that cold is going to suck if there’s a river crossing. heat from your body up to 250 You should always know if you’re going to have to cross times faster than air. JL: What makes an accident on a Jasper river particularly dangerous?
Jasper for people to float down the Miette River on a cheap raft. These things can be a disaster because it doesn’t take much for them to puncture. People absolutely need to be wearing PFDs; you’re potentially in for a long swim if the raft deflates. And you can’t be drinking in public. Boozing and boating is an offence. JL: What’s one safety item that people might not think of but should always have on them when on moving water? JS: A throw bag is so easy to carry and can really help out in a bad situation. Even when hiking, having one to do a river crossing—one person crosses while another belays— can be a life saver. b covey//bob@thejasperlocal.com
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
page B1 // the jasper local // issue 147 // saturday, June 15, 2019
local recreation //
Clockwise, from top: White hair, white water // Local Seniors were getting wet and wild June 10 when Alpine Summit Seniors Lodge organized a trip down the Mile 5 with Jasper Raft Tours (bob covey photo) // Relay relay fast // The home team raced to first place in the Banff-Jasper Relay June 1. (erin reade photo ) // kicking grass// Soccer season has started and Commemoration park has perfect pitch. (bob covey photo)
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
saturday, June 1, 2019 // issue 146 // the jasper local// page B2
Local business //
It’s the Journey, not the destination, for long distance biker turned new business owner Last year, 22-year-old Elissa Cummings rode a mountain bike from Jasper to Mexico. By herself. It took her nine weeks. She rode for 3,500 km. She passed through two provinces, seven states and two countries. She slept in a tent for 50 days, navigated poorly-marked trails and, while biking through the desert, was forced to drink water that “looked like chocolate milk.” At one point, Cummings got uncomfortably close to a mother bear and her cubs; at another, she faced hypothermia after getting rained on for a week straight.
“I remember stopping to hold my hands and toes because I was so cold and just screaming,” she said. But she kept going. On November 12, after arriving at the U.S./Mexico border, Cummings sent out a message to her parents: She made it. Her journey was over. And now she’s starting a new one. Cummings is the proud owner and operator of Journey Bike Guides, a brand-new company in Jasper. Cummings is offering guided mountain bike services to people wanting to explore the trails on two wheels. Hanging her shingle at Vicious Cycle, she’s rock on // Jasper’s Elissa Cummings spent a summer targeting families and coaching mountain bikers in Whistler, B.C. Now she’s visitors with limited starting up Journey Bike Guides in Jasper. // Supplied experience on mounCummings herself fell in love with mountain tain trails. biking at an early age. Born and raised in On“I think the large market will be people who tario, she got into racing and even won some haven’t done a lot of riding, or are nervous to big events before she took a nasty fall and go out on their own,” concussed herself. It was a serious injury. She she said. Cummings has experi- missed an entire semester of school. “It was a very long time before I felt like I was ence as a bike guide. myself again,” she said. Last summer she What helped her get back on the bike was a worked in Whistler, mostly coaching cross visit with her osteopath, a few coaching sessions with her Whistler crew and the goal she country riders but set to bike from Jasper to Mexico. Since she’s also taking laps in the famously intimidating met that challenge, her next one is to share her passion with others. bike park. “For me biking is freedom,” she said. “A bike “It was cool to see can take you almost anywhere. It’s an opportuan entirely different nity for people to explore beyond their limits.” style of riding,” she Now Cummings wants to explore beyond her said. “And it felt good limits, and bring others along for the Journey to help other people while she’s at it. learn the sport better bob covey // bob@thejasperlocal.com and fall in love with it.”
Elissa Cummings during her solo Jasper-Mexico bike ride // supplied
2019/20 EARLY BIRD
SEASON PASS SALE
SAVE
$
850
FAMILY SEASON PASS
$
SAVE
396
ADULT SEASON PASS
ONLY $999+GST
ONLY $2,090+GST
365
SALE ENDS JUNE 30TH!
YOUTH/STUDENT SEASON PASS
SAVE
$
ONLY $590+GST
DON’T MISS THE BEST PRICE OF THE YEAR!
*Savings are deducted from the regular season pass price before GST. Cannot be combined with other offers.
PURCHASE SEASON PASSES ONLINE OR CALL US TOLL FREE
SKI MARMOT.COM | 1-866-952-3816
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
page b3+B4 // the jasper local // issue 147 // june 15, 2019
FEATURE // story by bob covey
There aren’t many photos of the Stanko boys from their childhood in Jasper. The ones that do exist look as though the photographer had a hard time getting the three brothers to stand still long enough for a snap. “We were always on the go,” youngest brother Ron Stanko, now 60-years-old, remembered. “We just couldn’t wait to get up in the morning.” In the 1960s, the area now known as Cabin Creek was still a forest. The Stankos lived on the edge of it, right near the motel (now the Maligne Lodge) where Lydia, their mom, worked long hours at the front desk. The three boys—Steve, Mike and Ron— would spend all their free time chasing each other through the bush, building forts, catching fish and bringing back every bird, bug and beast they found in distress to their already crowded one-bedroom home. “I’m sure our parents must have begrudgingly agreed to the two crows in the living room, the duck in the bathtub, Pinky the deer in the front yard and Spot the dog chasing all of them throughout the house,” Ron laughed. The Stanko boys had an exuberance for life, an unquenchable thirst for adventure. That curiosity never waned, but on May 30 a big part of it was dampened when the eldest Stanko, Steve, died in an accident at Lost Boys, one of the many local rock climbing crags he helped establish. When the shocking news filtered through the tight-knit climbing community, then made its way through the larger circles that Steve inhabited, the immediate feeling was one of disbelief. How, people wondered, could Steve Stanko—a man so precise, so detail-oriented and who had so many technical climbs under his belt—have made a tragic error while at the crag he knew and loved so well? The truth is, there will never be a satisfying answer. We do know that the type of accident that occurred is all too common in the climbing world. According to first responders, Steve failed to capture both strands of his rope in his rappel device, a mistake that has accounted for hundreds of injuries and fatalities since 1951, as chronicled in Accidents in North American Mountaineering. Ryan Titchener, who himself had a near-fatal mountaineering accident in 2016, met a fellow spinal cord injury survivor in the hospital during his recovery. That climber’s accident occurred much in the same way that Stanko’s did, Titchener said. “It’s hard to believe, but that type of accident happens way more than we think,” he said. Titchener, like many local climbers, first met Stanko through the pages of the local climbing guides before getting to know him as a friend and mentor. “His name is everywhere,” Titchener said. “He was more than just a legendary Jasper climber, he was monumental in the development of the sport here because he was so willing to share his knowledge.”
Stanko’s generosity and mentorship is what many of those connected to the Jasper climbing fraternity are remembering in the wake of his death. Karine Pigeon spent time with Stanko at the bouldering wall and remembers him walking her through sequences of climbs that were on the edge of her limits. “He lent me his rope before I could afford mine… and took the time to set up easier routes for me,” she said. “I’ll never forget his stoke for life, his patience and his genuine interest in helping out.” That was in the late 1990s, but Stanko never stopped helping younger generations learn the sport he loved. With an easy smile he would offer a tip here, an encouraging word there. To 14 and 12-year-old Henri and Thomas Leclerc, with whom Stanko would play different climbing games at the gym, the 63-year-old was an idol. “He made us feel like his friend,” they wrote in a tribute email. Steve’s friends were many, and his sport
“He always competed with himself, it wasn’t an ego thing, it was a self transformation thing. He was always asking himself ‘What if I could…?’”
climbing influence was far-reaching. Jasperite Sam Wall didn’t spend a lot of personal time with Stanko, but he has spent hundreds of hours finding his way up the routes that Steve first set. “As a young person living in Jasper whose life revolves around climbing, my friends and I know what Steve did and are deeply appreciative of it,” Wall said. As much as he did for sport climbing, however, it’s arguable that Stanko’s biggest impact in Jasper mountain culture has been in the
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Pioneer, prankster, athlete and artist: Remembering Steve Stanko
cycling world. Longtime friend and Freewheel Cycle business partner Dave MacDowell called Stanko the “Godfather” of biking in Jasper. His creativity, innovation and good-natured competitiveness helped develop road, mountain and even town biking in this community. And it
came about organically, in a way that wasn’t intimidating, but inspiring. “Spork was a bike freak,” MacDowell said. “He was one of the first guys in Jasper with a mountain-style bike (he converted a cruiser by putting an extra ring on the chainset). He was the first guy to mountain bike with clipless pedals. He was always about ‘how fast and how far?’” Although Ron and Steve were leading separate lives
in their early 20s, the younger brother remembers that side of Steve well. “He always competed with himself,” Ron said. “It wasn’t an ego thing, it was a self transformation thing. He was always asking himself ‘What if I could…?’” As in, ‘What if I could bike for 600 km to Lumby, B.C. to visit my friend?’ Or ‘What if I could ride harder by ditching my seat post during a race up the Cavell Road?’ Or ‘What if I could customize my bike to be a little bit lighter and a little bit faster?’ “Everything always had to be the next level,” MacDowell said. Their famed “Ride the World” summer solstice epic would fall into that category. The annual two wheeled marathon included biking the Twenty Mile Loop, Mina Riley connectors, the now-closed Ho Chi Minh and Bike Toss trails, the Overlander Trail, Tea House, Valley of the Five Lakes and finally the Wabasso Lake trail. Basically all of Jasper’s trails, back then. Yes the trails. As much as Stanko’s name will forever be etched into the climbing crags around Jasper, it will be equally blazed into the trails that cyclists now associate with cross country, wildland riding here. Longtime Kona Bikes rep Richard Cox loved Stanko’s unique trail building style. It utilized ridges and rocky outcrops. It always found funky flow. “It was janky, technical and challenging,” Cox said. And like nearly everything Stanko did, it was artistic. Watching him stick to sheer rock, watching him streak down the wing on a hockey rink before snapping a top-corner wrist shot, watching him climb the dustiest, steepest hills on a bike, watching him carve on a snowboard…those who saw Stanko perform knew they were seeing an artist in his element. And no one saw it more close up than Leanne, the love of his life. She admired his work ethic, his commitment to family and his love for animals. She admired his confidence. She admired his kindness. When they first met, they were drawn to each other, but it wasn’t until 10 years ago that they realized they were soulmates. “He was an artist of compassion, self discipline and humanity,” Leanne told a tearful audience at Stanko’s service, June 8. “He was an artist of life and how to live it to the fullest.” “Steve gave me a love I had never seen or felt before,” she said. So say we all. bob covey // bob@thejasperlocal.com
622 Connaught Dr. Upper level PO Box 2079 Jasper, Alberta T0E 1E0
Phone: 780 852-2242 Fax: 780 865-1022
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
page B5 // the jasper local //issue 147 // saturday, June 15, 2019
local literature //
Tree hugger//First-time author Ailsa Ross has written a book for young children. The Girl Who Rode A Shark will be published in Canada in October. “If these stories can encourage kids to take healthy risks, I think that’s important.” // bob Covey
First-time author hopes to inspire future adventurers Jasper’s Ailsa Ross has a rule: no screens before she gets outside in the morning. That means no logging into social media, no checking her phone, no firing up the laptop. Instead, she’ll head out for a walk around Cabin Creek. Or a quick bike ride. The important thing is that she doesn’t waste the morning. “It’s my one rule for each day,” she says. “Otherwise I can find myself in my dressing gown staring into the abyss two hours later.” That small but steady bit of discipline has helped the 31-year-old Scottish writer establish a regular work routine, which in turn has enabled her to become a firsttime author. But not only has limiting her screen time been key to her writing a new adventure book for children, The Woman Who Rode A Shark And 50 More Wild Female Adventurers, the practice also pays a daily tribute to the very people she profiles in it. “For children and probably girls specifically,” she says, quoting scientist Nalini Nadkarni, one of her heroines in the book, “there isn’t a person on earth who couldn’t use a connection with nature.” Eight years ago, Ross herself needed to reconnect. She was teaching english to grade schoolers in Seoul, South Korea. The money was good, but the days were long and holidays were rare. She needed to get back outside. She needed to get back to writing. And so, after her contract was up, she went backpacking. She planned an odyssey. She figured she’d go overland, from Mexico to South America, writing about her travels and getting published. A byline in National Geographic, Lonely Planet and Conde Nast sounded pretty good. At least that was the intention. Then she met her future husband. “Two weeks in and I was taking a significant
detour,” she laughed. “All of a sudden I was moving to Canada.” Spring is a good time for a first look at the Rocky Mountains and when her partner introduced her to Banff, with its emerald lakes, glacier-capped peaks, abundant wildlife and long, sun-drenched days, the lassie from rainy Abderdineshire was mesmerized. But although her heart was happy, her soul still
Soon, Ross started looking into the stories of different explorers, activists, artists and athletes. By digging a little deeper, she unearthed a treasure trove of content. She learned of Alexandra David-Néel, a Buddhist opera singer who entered the forbidden city of Lhasa, in Tibet. Through the journalism of Christina Lamb, she got to know Nujeen Mustafa, a teenager born with cerebral palsy who traveled from warravaged Syria to Germany in a wheelchair. By sending letters to New Zealand-based professors, she discovered the story of Whina Cooper, a Māori activist who, at age 89, marched 616 miles in the name of indigenous land rights. “I started coming across stories of these women, but I “I started hadn’t heard of any of them, coming across stories of these it was really cool.” women, but I hadn’t heard of any of them,” she said. “It was really cool.” It was also a really good idea for a book, she thought. And although she sat on the idea for a number of years, she eventually found an agent, and a publishing house, who agreed. Last year, The Woman Who Rode A Shark was published in Britain. This October, it will launch in Canada. Ross promotes @womenadventurers With the help of illustrator Amy Blackwell, on social media, along with her book whose gorgeous graphics combine portraits and hand-drawn maps, Ross profiles stirred for a writing job. After setting off 50 different women, from aquanauts to once again with her backpack, she landed astronauts, and from treetop explorers to a gig at a digital startup in Berlin. There, eagle hunders. she was tasked with researching historical These are ocean-diving, jungle-running, figures who had notched up big adventures. mountain-climbing females from across the But there was a hiccup: the adventurers globe, and Ross, for one, hopes that their found in popular literature—Ernest Shackstories will help inspire children to get leton, Charles Darwin and Lawrence of Ara- outside. bia, for example—were almost always male. “If these stories can encourage kids to They were almost always white. take healthy risks, I think that’s imporWhere were the women, she thought? Where tant,” she said. were the people of colour? bob covey // bob@thejasperlocal.com
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
local angling //
saturday, June 15, 2019 // issue 147 // the jasper local// page B6
Reeling in the fish and ramping up the fun on Pyramid Lake We arrive at Pyramid Lake at first light, my one year old boy and four year old daughter up early and eager to start the day. Walking out to the boat launch and nearby dock, there isn’t a breath of wind; Pyramid Mountain is perfectly reflected in the lake’s glass-smooth water. “Do you want to catch a fish?” I ask Cedar. “Yes,” is her enthusiastic reply, so we break out the rods. I cast out a small bobber and a bead head prince nymph fly and put it in her hands. The tiny fly is suspended three feet under the bobber, exactly the depth where the rainbows and whitefish like to cruise and feed. I am about to join her when a sizeable splash near shore grabs my attention. I turn just in time to see a hefty lake trout chasing minnows. I quickly set up my own rod, a bobber with a minnow-like streamer fly, and cast it to where the lake trout was. One cast, two casts, 10 casts later and I figure the lake trout has left. I keep an eye on Cedar’s bobber though, and sure enough it gets pulled under. “Cedar, you have a bite, reel up your line!” She does, but the fish drops the hook before the line comes tight. We cast her line out again, and shortly the bobber shoots under, and Cedar tries again. This fish gets off too. We break for breakfast and then return with the boat, along with Lyla and my daughter Angela. It’s lake trout time. Catching lake trout in Pyramid Lake is largely
about location and a bit about presentation. There are a number of good spots to find fish, but the two spots that have never failed me are the narrow channel of water off the tip of the island, and the area immediately out from the boat launch, right where the water starts to get deep. Both places hold lake trout, but of the two, the island channel area is my favourite. That’s because fish that move from one side of the lake to the other will have to pass through this channel area, meaning there are almost always fish to be caught here. Flatfish find laker love on Pyramid // F. Noddin
My go-to presentation is to troll a two to three ounce bottom bouncer, to which I tie five feet of 12 we can bonus a fish there.” Sure enough, just as our pound fluorocarbon line, and to the end of that I tie lines are coming from the deep water to the shallows on an F5 frog green flatfish (the rainbow coloured near the boat launch, my line is hit and I pull up a flatfish is a close second). I troll the flatfish slow and beautiful laker of my own. I try one more pass, just I let line off the reel until it hits bottom. I move the to see, and tag another laker, a twin to my first. With boat back and forth, across the entire width of the that we had seven beautiful trout in the boat. They channel area, covering as much of the water as I average 17 to 20 inches and are perfect. In a couple can. On this day, each time we start at the bottom of day’s time we cook up our mountain-fresh bounty end of the channel and start trolling upwind toward for dinner and they are as tasty as it comes. Fishing the sun, we get a hit. It starts with Lyla catching a Pyramid Lake has always been good to us and we feisty laker, then Angela, then Cedar. Between the are already looking at our calendar to see when we three of them they catch four lakers, plus a bonus can come back again. rainbow, quite quickly. Fred Noddin calls Edmonton home, where he works as an aquatics And then the bite goes biologist. He recently earned his MSc in Ecology at the University quiet. Rather than wait of Alberta, and has spent the last decade involved in the study of them out, I suggest to Alberta and NWT fisheries. Fred comes to the mountains at every opportunity, for the fishing, the scenery, the hiking and for the wide the crew, “Let’s troll open spaces and amazing people. Email noddin@ualberta.ca our way back and see if